Reporting Deputy: Sergeant Thomas Anderson
File # N/A
Details:
City of Coachella Awarded Grant from the Office of Traffic Safety for Traffic Enforcement Program to Increase Safety on Roads
Coachella, Calif. – The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, city of Coachella, was awarded a $92,258 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). The grant will support our ongoing enforcement and education programs to help reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths on our roads.
“This funding will strengthen our commitment to public safety in our community,” Sergeant Thomas Anderson said. “We will be able to increase our efforts in making our roads safer for everyone and focus on critical areas such as distracted driving, impaired driving and speeding.”
Deputy Robert Wiggs said, “Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, roadway deaths in California have increased at an alarming rate. Using the grant funding provided by OTS will help our community have a safer day-to-day driving experience.”
The grant will provide additional programs and resources, including:
- DUI checkpoints and patrols focused on stopping suspected impaired drivers.
- High-visibility distracted driving enforcement operations targeting drivers in violation of California’s hands-free cell phone law.
- Enforcement operations focused on the most dangerous driver behaviors that put the safety of people biking or walking at risk.
- Enforcement operations focused on top violations that cause crashes: speeding, failure to yield, stop sign and/or red-light running, and improper turning or lane changes.
- High-visibility saturation patrols targeting impaired drivers.
- Collaborative enforcement efforts with neighboring agencies.
- Officer training and/or recertification: Standard Field Sobriety Test (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) and Drug Recognition Expert (DRE).
The grant program will run through September 2024.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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